Call centres average 6 million calls daily

New research commissioned by IT company Cincom Systems highlights a growing dependence on call centres, with almost one in three people using call centre facilities more than once every two weeks.

The survey, conducted by Benchmark Research, took place at the end of June and was compiled from 100 interviews. 90% of respondents believed that the c

all centre business would increase over the next 5 years. Gavin Bradbury, marketing manager with Cincom Systems, said: "There is a lot of hype around the call centre and its exponential growth. We wanted to look at the other side of the coin and find out from the consumer how often they were using them and what for. With 90% stating they envisage a further increase in the number of call centres, this ties in with industry analysts and commentators who all seem to be predicting fantastic growth."

These findings correspond with those of a report from the Invest in Britain Bureau. That survey, carried out by telemarketing agency Teleperformance, found that customer service standards in UK call centres have shown a dramatic improvement over the past year.

The UK has jumped from 7th to 4th place in the world league, a move attributed to criteria including speed of response, warmth of welcome, product knowledge, sales awareness attitude and control of calls.

The UK call centre industry has grown rapidly and is estimated to have a workforce currently of around 390,000.

Julie Crisp